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Killing Animals Is Fun!

It is hard to make sense of human behaviour sometimes…well, a lot of times…

This beautiful creature was shot inaccurately by hunters and then had to wander about for the best part of 2 weeks with this arrow through it’s head. Alerted by a Ms Susan Darrah who would often be visited by the deer who came to eat the pickings in her back yard, some folks got together to wait for the animal, tranquilize it and remove the arrow. Yay!

The deer was then set ‘free to roam’ where it is once again the permitted target of both competent and incompetent ‘hunters.’ Sigh!

I don’t have any answers, but I have questions. A good friend hunts all of the meat that she eats. She is competent with gun or bow, and also hunts bear. She catches the legal limit of fish each year. It is one way she provides for herself and her family. She is not wasteful, and she doesn’t hunt for fun. And personally, I think better of her killing, cleaning and butchering her own meat than I do of people buying the shrink-wrapped steaks in the supermarket and getting grossed out if anyone tries to point out to them where *that* meat comes from. I used to live near Milwaukee, and every year I would see the weekend warriors who had somehow successfully killed a dear, driving around with the carcass tied to their bumpers, until the meat was putrified, then dumping the rotting carcasses in the ditches alongside roads. Gross. Why does my friend hunt? I think the answer is clear, and she is a responsible, mature and intelligent hunter. Why do those other people hunt? I haven’t a bloody clue. Unless it’s the only way they can feel their manhood, or something equally stupid.

I personally think that before anyone gets a hunting license they ought to be able to explain in clear detail just what makes them suitable candidates to be wandering around with a lethal weapon and a permit to kill. It’s not the hunting I don’t understand, but the idiots. Can anyone explain the idiots to me? Can I get a license to kill one of them? (only kidding … sort of)

There is a lot of writing out there on animal abuse. I have seen first-hand the chicken factories, pig, factories, and cow management systems. Horrible. I eat meat, I have hunted for food and I am capable of violence against my fellow humans, when needed. Yes and then there is what we do to each other. Delusions are rampant among us humans. We are blessed and cursed with the ability to imagine to anticipate and fantasize. Introspection on when we go too far, when it is crazy, is greatly lacking in society. Thank you for your post.

This for me is spot on. I particularly like the last line. There are such elastic boundaries on good and bad depending on our personal agendas, greed and desires. As a society we seem to be heading in the opposite direction to mindfulness, introspection and personal integrity in favour of soundbites, loud noise and quick fixes.
I don’t see this changing any time soon and am bereft of ideas myself.

Just because we modern humans don’t have to hunt in order to eat, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t. I do not hunt but know several people that do. This looks to me like a very unfortunate miss and one that (as someone else mentioned) is very difficult to fix.
Many commenters are casting judgment on the callousness of the hunter but chances are equally good that the hunter felt more terrible than the rest of us. True hunters do NOT appreciate the maiming of an animal. They are respectful, meat-eating humans.

Hunting for the appropriate needed amount of food is indeed in our genes….and was really well handled by native Americans who believed they belonged to Earth and Earth doesn’t belong to human…..it is also important to regulate some species which don t have predators anymore…..
I have a wonderful example on that subject: I used to live on a huuuuge gated property when I had horses. When purchasing that property, the former owner told me we had dears….and he would be glad to come once or twice a year for hunting….I was shocked…..and refused categorically …no way to kill these cuties….3 years later….I noticed I had a lot of sick dears….deformities….weaknesses….on was so sick I was able to catch him in winter…and kept him for the night in my kitchen…keeping him warm, feeding him…..he was so weak…..he didn t make it through the night….
I had to question myself…why are they all sick….and I have to say…I knew they were too much…..
I first try to chase them out of the gate….impossible….I tried to figure out how much they were and had to call a hunter….
Asking him to hunt half of them….he wasn’t happy, animals were sick…and not appropriate for eating….
I have to admit…I was wrong….moderation and gentle management is the way our ancients were doing…this is right….what is wrong is to kill for the fun of it….just for the pleasure of adrenalin….these are sick people…
This is only my point of view thank you for this post full of questioning !!!
France

V. interesting perspective EF. I do believe good management of any population is a good thing. I would query the way we manage animals in cases like this. Humans are over populated in certain areas in comparison to their resources and yet we haven’t started eliminating them similarly…or have we?! 😯

Was, what a tricky topic we slip on….with human overpopulation….indeed it is leading to lack of food and increase of many diseases….but genetically spoken we are programmed to save our own specie …not to eliminate it….
It is maybe scheduled by some…as said in articles on the web…for example with vaccination campaigns in Africa….but I prefer not even having an opinion on that…the subject is so sad…if true….
Anyway, if we observe animal populations on restricted territories…like on Shetland island….where Shetlands ponies are living…without ever being overpopulated….we could think some kind of regulation applies naturally….a natural selection…the weaker can t survive….the strongest becomes the genitors of young population….
Let’s go there, us…human being, let’s defend the weaker ponies, vaccinate to tempt and avoid sickness….give surgery to the wounded…and we change that natural balance…tough though…but a reality….than the island won t provide enough food for all these weak saved ponies….
Shocking reality….I don t even want to transpose that the the human being specie…..
Thank you for your posts which are making us thinking…and….overthinking…😬🙀👏

Lol! It’s nice to over think sometimes EF! 🙂
I agree nature knows what it needs and does it’s job well…but we humans…we just know so much don’t we? It is we who f*ck up the natural balance of everything and as a result of our continued folly the weakest suffer more than nature would have dispatched them naturally.

I don’t know if we are genetically disposed to protect our own species. I would have thought that rather we are disposed to protect ourselves and our nearest?

I understand deer hunting season and why it’s a season–to thin out the population. Do I like it? No. It is one thing to hunt and kill an animal “humanely” so that it dies quickly, but this picture depicts inhumane treatment. Sigh…glad to see the deer was saved, even if to meet its final death.

I live in Texas and I know many of my sons’ friends and their parents hunt. Their Facebook profile pictures consist of them father and son (or mother and daughters) smiling in front of a deer they just shot. It breaks my heart and honestly makes me sick how this is considered “fun”. My boys hate that kids they know brag about killing animals. So I want to propose to every school here in Texas to read Bambi and watch the movie. But I probably will be shunned.

I’m sure it was an unfortunate accident, hardly to fix it as the poor animal ran away. Nevertheless, this stupid medieval “sport” should be banned, and the bows, crossbows and arrows confiscated. Want meat, get a proper gun, learn using it and go hunting. It’s the 21st century…

And last night I watched a horrific report on Greyhound racing in Australia and the illegal use of live animals as lures. In the end it is often about the dollar. What is wrong with these people? We must take a stand against animal cruelty.

When I see stuff like this, I think of one word; increments. Why? Because someone who would do something like that to an animal is only practicing before he/she takes his/her show on the road. He may change his act a bit but unfortunately, sometimes this type of stuff is just them getting started. People are going all sociopathically-existential, wanting to see things die or suffer…

Too bad for the little deer in the picture, the truth is the whole planet is suffering under men and woman the like, and worse of all: there is another more respectful way to live. However, that way would take a community of earth beings who can recognize that all the bull shit we where fed as children is nothing more than lies. We would have to think and do for it is the universal right thing to do. Genetic disease, learned stupidity, human nature rationalizations seem to be one in the same. Based in ignorance and fear! My advice always its stars from with-in the individual. Thank you for bringing such a pathetic event to life, its giving an opportunity to not let life die in vain… Chances are who ever did this had a great explanation.. Its always hard to find crazy people, because its impossible to get any one to raise their hand, when it comes time to round them up. evolyourself everyday
– JZ

I always say that if I wore a turnip on my head and walked around with a bicycle wheel as a necklace with fresh herbs growing out of my ears I would still display more sanity than so many who follow dogma and tradition without ever considering that it should just possibly be questioned.
Thanks Doc. Great write up.

This is so sad, I don’t understand people either. Jesus. I remember seeing a group of young boys kicking around a dead squirrel once, when I was riding in the car with my dad. And once, there was a group of people throwing things at a bird, which turned out to be a messenger pigeon, and I ended up saving and returning him/her to their home down the street. Yes, please, someone let us all know why hurting others is okay? Is it because they cannot defend themselves? Or is it because we really are that disgusting and pathetic? I really wish this kind of stuff didn’t happen. It just makes my heart ache.

I can understand to a degree why people enjoy hunting…shooting guns is definitely fun. And when you have to be silent for ages, then point and accurately hit an animal, the adrenaline rush is insane, and the bigger the animal the better. But next time my uncle’s in town, I’m not going out hunting with him and the guys. I didn’t always have this attitude – I decided to man up, and I tried it twice – shot at ducks (couldn’t bring myself to break their necks afterwards and had to have my brother do it) and hunted turkeys last fall. But honestly, after hunting the turkeys with my dad, and seeing the bird flap around after he’d shot it…I refused to go on the deer hunting trip with him and my brother the month after.

I mean, I tried. You can’t dismiss something until you’ve given it a shot. But the adrenaline is not worth watching the poor animals die…sure, we ate all the meat, and animals have to die for the other meat I eat on a daily basis, but I cannot relish in the death of a living creature. It’s unpleasant, and not something I can make a sport of.

The are others of the same specie, human who take their killing to a higher level . They actually publicly murder their fellow human, chopping off their heads. Why you may ask? Their answer is they disagree with their beliefs.There is nothing worth taking a human life period.nick

I wish I could explain “humans,” but I can’t, and I guess that’s part of the reason I try to help them. When it comes to hunters, it doesn’t matter how educated they are they love to hunt and feel it’s their right. I knew one that liked to say, “if it’s brown, shoot it down.” That kind of an attitude is hard for me, but they just can’t see through any kind of logic.

Well, near everyone I know has hunted one time or another. On one hand I look at it like this. If it can put food on the table. I have no problem, Ones do it for sport is another thing. I’ve told a few if you really wanted to call yourself a hunter do it with a bow and arrow. But seeing pictures like this one, have to rethink it. Personally the only hunting I do is in the meat department.